Intel tells EU court antitrust fine violated its human rights

It's no surprise that Intel is appealing the over �1 billion antitrust fine …

Intel has officially appealed the hefty �1 billion+ fine levied against it in May by the European Union after a years-long antitrust investigation. In doing so, the chipmaker made what appears to be an unusual argument: that the EU has violated Intel's human rights by assessing such a large fine.

Unlike the United States, where the Department of Justice often files lawsuits in the course of its inquiries, a European Union antitrust investigation is administrative in nature. The European Commission's Directorate General for Competition investigates and issues a finding once it has gathered sufficient data. The end result is often a very large fine, such as the �500 million Microsoft was forced to pay.

The gist of the human-rights-violation argument is that multimillion-euro fines should only be issued by criminal courts, not as a result of an administrative proceeding. "There is no doubt that antitrust proceedings are criminal in nature," Arianna Andreangeli, a lecturer in law at the Liverpool Law School told the Wall Street Journal, citing their "deterrent and punitive" nature.

While not making the exact details of its appeal known, an Intel spokesperson did confirm that the company has raised the issue with the EU. The Wall Street Journal notes that other European companies have cited human rights violations in their appeals, including Schindler Holding and Saint-Gobain Glass France SA.

In its over-500-page decision, European Commission ruled that Intel violated EU antitrust law by providing OEMs volume rebates that prevented rival AMD from expanding its market share. Intel was also found to have paid one PC manufacturer to delay the release of AMD-powered desktops and a retailer to keep its shelves AMD-free.

Although a handful of companies have raised the human rights issue, none of them have yet succeeded in convincing the Court of First Instance that their rights were violated as a result of the antitrust investigations and rulings. The Court will rule on Intel's appeal some time in 2010.

Eric Bangeman
Eric has been using personal computers since 1980 and writing about them at Ars Technica since 2003, where he currently serves as Managing Editor. Twitter@ericbangeman